Credits To Help Finance 1,300 Affordable Houses, Apartments

The money the developers will raise from sale of the credits to investors, plus $35 million in financing from the City of Chicago, will build 1,300 affordable houses and apartments.

In 1987, the U.S. Treasury began apportioning an annual percentage of federal tax dollars to be awarded to affordable housing builders in each state.

While Chicago and New York are the only cities in the country with home-rule authority to award their own tax credit allotments, some Chicago developers applied to the Illinois Housing Development Authority for a share in its low-income housing tax credit allotment, which tends to focus outside the city.

The state agency's first $6.3 million issue to 14 statewide projects will be announced in coming weeks, according to IHDA spokesman Tom Raue. He says a recent board meeting, however, identified two Chicago developments that will receive part of the state's tax credits--Holsten Realty's North Town Village and L R Development's Humboldt Ridge Apartments.

Seven developers who received city awards will use their tax credit equity to build family-oriented housing:

- Bickerdike Redevelopment/Chicago Mutual Housing Network got $1 million in tax credits and $793,152 in city financing to fund the Humboldt Park Tenant Ownership Project, a 21-unit cooperative that will cost $2.6 million. It represents the city's first investment in co-op housing.

- The Resurrection Project, partnering with Brinshore Development, won $4.3 million in tax credits and $4.4 million in city financing for Casa Puebla, a $10 million project creating 85 rental units in three non-contiguous buildings in Pilsen and Back of the Yards.

- Holsten Real Estate Development and Kenard Corp. got just over $3 million in tax credits, and $9 million in city financing to build its $28 million North Town Village, 155 units of market-rate and affordable housing for renters and owners. Replacing a portion of the Chicago Housing Authority's demolished Cabrini-Green high-rises, the project also won an additional $966,937 in state awarded tax credits from IHDA.

- In Washington Park, St. Edmund's Redevelopment Corp. got $2.5 million in tax credits and $2.4 million in city financing to rehab 230 units at 6253 S. Michigan Ave., a deteriorated building insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The $13 million project will be called St. Edmund's Village.

- Antioch Baptist Church in Englewood, building 59 Antioch Homes, an $8.2 million project on non-contiguous sites, got $4.2 million in tax credits and $2.2 million in city financing.

- East Lake Management, building 154 units at Stone Terrace Apartments, 8415 S. Vincennes Ave., won $2.8 million in tax credits and $3.3 million in city financing for its $9.9 million project.

- Woodlawn Community Development Corp.--building 130 units at South Park Plaza, 2616 S. King Drive--won $3.6 million in tax credits and $3.7 million in city financing for its $14.2 million project.

Five developers will use their tax credits to build senior housing.

- L R Development got $3.2 million in tax credits and $1.2 million in city financing to rehab a troubled South Shore building into the 87-unit Cregier Apartments, a $5.3 million seniors complex.

- Senior Suites Chicago, a division of Senior Lifestyle Corp., got $4.2 million in tax credits and $3.4 million in city financing to build 85 units for seniors, an $8.3 million project at 840-852 W. 103rd St. in the Washington Heights neighborhood.

- In Englewood, John Luce's Yale Partnership got $3.7 million in tax credits and $1.5 million in city financing to rehab the building at 6565 S. Yale Ave., which is on the National Register of Historic Places and stood vacant for five years.

The 7-story, yellow brick building, built in the 1890s, is known for its interior atrium. The $6.8 million conversion will turn the building into 68 units for seniors. Luce also qualifies for historic tax credits, issued by the Department of the Interior, and expects those credits to be around $1.4 million.

- New Birth Community Church of God in Christ, building 89 units in Wheeler House, a $7.7 million seniors complex at 1450 W. 69th St., got $3.9 million in tax credits and $3.4 million in city financing.

- New Kenwood LLC, a partnership between local developer Davis/Ditton and developer and builder Tony Rezco of Rezmar Corp. got $2.5 million in city financing for its $13.2 million, 97-unit Cottage View Terrace project at 4801 S. Cottage Grove Ave. The developer is preparing to apply for IHDA's second, $6.2 million issue, to be announced in four months, according to Raue.